Twenty-four summonses were issued to smokers and managers for failure to comply with the smoking ban during surprise inspections of Columbia bars on Thursday, according to a statement released by the Columbia/Boone County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division.

JEFFERSON CITY — Just hours after Gov. Matt Blunt defended his decision Wednesday to retain a top official accused of sexual harassment, two female statewide officials questioned the governor’s actions concerning the former Department of Agriculture director and the proposed settlement of the sexual harassment investigation.

JEFFERSON CITY — In the latest legislative swipe at illegal immigration in Missouri, the House gave initial approval Wednesday to a measure that would ban illegal immigrants from attending Missouri public colleges and universities.

W-I-N-D. Only four letters long, yet its impact is strong. It can be friendly at times; it can be fierce at times. It moves people against their will, but it can also breathe life into objects that have no say-so at all. Wind: It’s here, for now.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that the administration and federal regulators are closely monitoring financial markets in the wake of the biggest stock market sell-off in more than five years, but so far the markets appear to be “working well.”

Shelley Ravipudi views her properties on Lyon Street as long-term investments and doesn’t plan to sell them anytime soon. Even a purchasing option promising $175,000 for the property at 506 Lyon St. didn’t change her mind.

They seem to be everywhere downtown right now, those posters with the orange backgrounds showing an entanglement of sorts between an “architeuthis dux” and a “campephilus principalis” — that is, a giant squid and an ivory-billed woodpecker.